Sports Fan Blogs

Possible Under The Radar Move: Aubrey Huff

A while back we took at look at the possibility of adding Kevin Kouzmanoff as a cheap means to improve team defense while still leaving some room for offensive upside and not breaking the bank. In that same spirit, today we'll take a look at one of the better off-season signings from this last year, the Giants Aubrey Huff.

Huff clearly had a pretty good season in San Fransisco, hitting .290/.385/.506, but at age 34 he isn't likely to command a large long term deal on the open market. Reportedly he's happy in the Bay area, but that doesn't mean that the team won't look to the open or trade markets this off-season to get a better player, possibly even Prince Fielder. If that should happen and Huff hits the open market, he has plenty of things going for him to replace Fielder, should he end up being moved by the Brewers.

Unlike Kouzmanoff, Huff isn't a proven, elite defender, but he's a bit better at first than his career UZR numbers appear on the surface. His career UZR at first base is a -6.5 which works out to a -3.0 per 150 games played. Now compared with Fielder's career -31.2 and -6.7 per 150 games played, that isn't bad, but it's not all that great. It's worth noting, though, that Huff has rarely been committed full time to 1B, he usually splits his time at other positions. This year he played 100 games at first, more than any other year in his career, and he posted a 5.4 UZR and a 9.7 UZR/150. It's unlikely that he'll be that good playing everyday for the Brewers defensively at first, but he would be a at least a substantial upgrade from Fielder with the glove.

Offensively, he's coming off of his best year since 2003 with Tampa Bay, but you only have to go back to 2008 (137 OPS+) to find a year where he was reasonably close to this year's performance (138 OPS+). Yes, Huff has been inconsistent with the bat throughout his career, but he has much more often been a solid to plus on-base player than he has been a liability in that department, and that should help him fit into a Brewers lineup that isn't going to need him to produce big time power numbers. He also happens to be left handed, and the Brewers are going to need a left handed bat or two to balance things out if Fielder does leave town.

Huff isn't the kind of player you want to get into a big, multi-year bidding war for, because he doesn't have a perfectly clean track record of success and his upside is somewhat limited. With the large number of players at first base potentially either on the free agent (Adam Dunn, Carlos Pena) or trade (Fielder, Adrian Gonzalez) markets, Huff may fall somewhat between the cracks, and if that happens he could be a steal for whoever grabs him. The Brewers should definitely keep him in mind as they proceed this off-season, even if only as a decent backup plan.